Avant-pop ispopular music that isexperimental, new, and distinct from previous styles[1] while retaining an immediate accessibility for the listener.[2] The term implies a combination ofavant-garde sensibilities with existing elements from popular music in the service of novel or idiosyncratic artistic visions.[3]
"Avant-pop" has been used to label music which balances experimental oravant-garde approaches with stylistic elements from popular music, and which probes mainstream conventions of structure or form.[3] Writer Tejumola Olaniyan describes "avant-pop music" as transgressing "the boundaries of established styles, the meanings those styles reference, and thesocial norms they support or imply."[1] Music writer Sean Albiez describes "avant-pop" as identifying idiosyncratic artists working in "a liminal space betweencontemporary classical music and the many popular music genres that developed in the second half of the twentieth century."[3] He noted avant-pop's basis in experimentalism, as well itspostmodern and non-hierarchical incorporation of varied genres such as pop,electronica,rock,classical, andjazz.[3]
Paul Grimstad ofThe Brooklyn Rail writes that avant-pop is music that "re-sequences" the elements of song structure "so that (a) none of the charm of the tune is lost, but (b) this very accessibility leads one to bump into weirder elements welded into the design."[2] The Tribeca New Music Festival defines "avant-pop" as "music that draws its energy from both popular music and classical forms."[4] The term has elsewhere been used by literary criticLarry McCaffery to describe "the most radical, subversive literary talents of the postmodern new wave."[5]
In the 1960s, as popular music began to gain cultural importance and question its status as commercial entertainment, musicians began to look to thepost-war avant-garde for inspiration.[3] In 1959, music producerJoe Meek recordedI Hear a New World (1960), whichTiny Mix Tapes' Jonathan Patrick calls a "seminal moment in bothelectronic music and avant-pop history [...] a collection of dreamy pop vignettes, adorned with dubby echoes and tape-warped sonic tendrils" which would be largely ignored at the time.[6] Other early avant-pop productions includedthe Beatles's 1966 song "Tomorrow Never Knows", which incorporated techniques frommusique concrète, avant-garde composition,Indian music, andelectro-acoustic sound manipulation into a 3-minute pop format, andthe Velvet Underground's integration ofLa Monte Young'sminimalist anddrone music ideas,beat poetry, and 1960s pop art.[3]
In late 1960s Germany, an experimental avant-pop scene dubbed "krautrock" saw influential artists such asKraftwerk,Can, andTangerine Dream draw inspiration from minimalism, Germanacademic music, andAnglo-Americanpop-rock.[3] According toThe Quietus' David McNamee, the 1968 albumAn Electric Storm, recorded by theelectronic music groupWhite Noise (featuring members from the U.K.’sBBC Radiophonic Workshop), is an "undisputed masterpiece of early avant-pop".[7] In the 1970s,progressive rock andpost-punk music would see new avant-pop fusions, including the work ofPink Floyd,Genesis,Henry Cow,This Heat, andthe Pop Group.[3] The "avant-pop cult favorites"Slapp Happy formed in 1972, drawing variously on styles likechanson,cabaret,bossa nova, andtango while collaborating with Henry Cow.[8] More contemporary avant-pop artists have includedDavid Sylvian,Scott Walker, andBjörk, whose vocal experimentation and innovative modes of expression have seen them move beyond norms of commercial pop music.[3]
Others who have been credited as avant-pop's pioneers include the Velvet Underground'sLou Reed,[9] singerKate Bush,[3] performance artistLaurie Anderson,[10]art pop musicianSpookey Ruben,[11] andBlack Dice'sEric Copeland.[12] As of 2017, contemporary artists working in avant-pop areas includeJulia Holter,Holly Herndon andOneohtrix Point Never.[3]
In 1979, Andrew Stiller ofThe Buffalo News wrote of two separate strands; "avant-garde pop", he theorised, comprisednew wave music and acts likeBrian Eno,Devo andTalking Heads, whereas "pop avant-garde", he deemed, was "a popularization of theindeterminacycumelectronics so widespread among classical composers a decade ago". He counted recent works byVangelis,Heldon andBruce Ditmas as examples of the latter, and wrote that it originated in the1960s counterculture's "notions of universal amateurism" with pieces likethe Doors' "Horse Latitudes" (1967), the Beatles' "Revolution 9" (1968) and, later, the solo improvisations ofTerry Riley.[13]